Ramavarapu Vijayalakshmi, who trained many students in playing the Veena in perfect manner and extended motherly love and concern towards them for six decades, passed away due to cardiac arrest in Hyderabad on Monday. She was 76 and is survived by husband Sarathbabu (noted Sanskrit theatre scholar), daughter Ramavarapu Madhuri Devi (veena artiste), and son Ravindra Tejaswi (ghatam and mridangam artiste). Her body was brought to her house at Dondaparthi here and the last rites will be performed on Wednesday.
The late Vijayalakshmi designed ‘vipanchi veena’ with four strings on the top and seven strings below them instead of three strings. She had received ‘Guru Vijayam Vande’, composed by her daughter at a function held in Hyderabad on February 22 and witnessed the performance of 25 students and her son and daughter performing along with Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhat, and vocal recital by her grandson Abhinava Purna Yashaswi during the programme. She passed away the next day.
She was born in Hyderabad on October 3, 1938 and moved to Visakhapatnam at the age of 16 and got training in playing the veena under the tutelage of Patrayani Narayana Murthy and Kavirayani Jogarao and later started imparting training to youngsters.
